The Minor Prophets were translated into Greek probably sometime in the second century BC, probably either in Egypt or Palestine, and apparently all by a single translator. (See Tov 2019: 130–31.) The same translator was perhaps also responsible for the Greek translation of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The translation is quite close to the traditional Hebrew text (the Masoretic Text; Tov 2019: 132).

The standard Greek edition of this translation was produced by Joseph Ziegler in 1943 and updated by Felix Albrecht a couple years ago. (For an English translation, see here.)

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There are six majuscule manuscripts preserving the Minor Prophets.

* the Freer Codex (W), third century AD (information; some images)

* Codex Vaticanus (B), fourth century (images)

* Codex Sinaiticus (S), fourth century (info and images)

* Codex Alexandrinus (A), fifth century (images of a facsimile)

* Codex Marchalianus (Q), sixth century (images)

* Codex Venetus (V), eighth century (Vatican section images; Venetian section)

There are some commentaries on the Septuagint Minor Prophets—a few volumes of Brill’s Septuagint Commentary Series and then a few volumes of the French series La Bible d’Alexandrie.

Sequence

The sequence of books in the Minor Prophets differs between the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text. The difference affects only the first six books. The sequence in the English Bible is based on the Masoretic text, so the sequence likely familiar to you is not the LXX sequence.

* Masoretic Text: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah

* LXX: Hosea, Amos Micah, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah

The first LXX manuscript that attests this order is the first LXX manuscript that we have (except for the Naḥal Ḥever scroll [DJD edition], which presents a Greek translation of the Minor Prophets revised toward the Hebrew text, possibly including the sequence of books)—yet, it is a third century AD manuscript, so we can still wonder whether the sequence of books in the Codex W reflects the original LXX sequence or whether it was itself altered at some point before this manuscript. At any rate, most Greek manuscripts of the Minor Prophets reflect this “LXX sequence,” but not all. Several ancient commentaries reflect the Masoretic sequence: the commentaries by Theodore and Theodoret. But, then again, these are both Aniochene authors, and the Antiochene Greek manuscripts also reflect the Masoretic sequence. The LXX sequence is reflected in the commentary by Cyril of Alexandria. And the LXX order also appears in 5 Ezra 1:39–40 and an aberrant sequence in Martyrdom of Isaiah 4.22 and the Lives of the Prophets.

Jennifer Dines (2012: 367) suggests that Origen may be responsible for the popularization within Christianity of a ‘Greek’ order that arose among Egyptian Jews.

One Book?

As I mentioned, LXX scholars seem agreed that the translation of all twelve Minor Prophets was produced by a single translator, which suggests that the twelve were seen as a single collection at the time of the translation.

On the other hand, LXX manuscripts—at least the ones I’ve looked at—seem to treat the individual prophets as their own book (as pointed out by Dogniez, pdf, p. 307).

The following image shows Codex Sinaiticus, the end of Joel and the beginning of Obadiah. Note that Joel (ΙΩΗΛ), at the bottom of the left column (signaling the end of the book), has a Δ under it, the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, showing that it is the fourth in a group of books (according to the Greek order). Obadiah (ΑΒΔΙΟΥ) then, at the top of the right column, is labeled with an epsilon (ε), the fifth letter.

Presumably this numbering suggests that the Twelve Prophets belong together in some way. On the other hand, the end of a book and the beginning of the next looks like the division between books, not parts of a book.

This next image shows Codex Vaticanus, the translation between Amos and Micah. Again, Micah is labeled with a gamma (Γ), the third letter of the Greek alphabet, showing that it belongs in a sequence of books, but the beginning of Micah sure does look like the start of a new book.

The end of Malachi and the start of Isaiah in Codex Vaticanus looks exactly the same, as the next image shows.

So, does the LXX present the Minor Prophets as a single book, or as a group of twelve books? I’d lean toward the idea that it’s a group of twelve books in the LXX, at least in these LXX manuscripts.

One more thing on this point: one of the ways in which scholars sometimes argue that the twelve Minor Prophets should be considered a single book is because of some catchwords linking the end of one book with the beginning of the next. (I’ll talk a little more about this phenomenon in a later post; but for now see here and here.) Modern proposals for such catchwords are usually based on the sequence in the Masoretic Text. There are probably some scholarly proposals for catchwords based on the LXX sequence, but I’m not familiar with those proposals, and—initially, at least—it would seem that the LXX sequence messes up the catchwords. So, again, I would lean toward seeing the weight of the LXX evidence as against the idea that the Minor Prophets are presented to readers as a single book.

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